Aunt ordered out of UK

6:00am Wednesday 10th December 2008

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A Chinese woman will be deported today after immigration officials ruled she was working as an unpaid nanny by looking after her niece in Oxfordshire.

Hua Chun Wang, who spent six months helping her sister Yuhong Wang with her two-and-a-half-year old daughter, Charlotte Hailey, at their Wantage home earlier this year, was stopped by immigration officials when she returned from China to see her family on November 30.

'When you come to see your family, you’re not just sitting there doing nothing. You help out, but she’s not an unpaid nanny'

Yuhong Wang

Now she has been given a deportation order and is due to be put on a flight back to China at 5pm today — despite she and her family insisting she had not breached her visa rules.

Her sister described 45-year-old Mrs Wang as a “half-mother” to her, and said: “When you come to see your family, you’re not just sitting there doing nothing. You help out, but she’s not an unpaid nanny.

“She told the border officials that she was looking after her niece, because in my culture the most important thing is the children, but she was here to see all of us.”

They were told in writing there was no right of appeal and have decided to accept the ruling, so will be saying goodbye to Mrs Wang tonight.

But Yuhong Wang, 38, said: “She’s so disappointed, but what can she do? She’s just trying to see her family. She said she was really depressed but didn’t want to make any trouble.

“She’s really sad she can’t see my daughter, because she loves her so much.”

The Wang family is from the Guang Xi province in southern China, and Yuhong Wang came to the UK in 2001 to study at Reading University, then met and fell in love with Richard Hailey. The couple got married in 2004.

They spent a year living with Hua Chun Wang in China, before moving to Wallingford Street, Wantage.

Mrs Wang said because her sister had been found in breach of immigration rules, she would not be allowed to return to the UK for 10 years, meaning the only way she could see her sister and niece was for the whole family to travel to China.

A spokesman for the UK Border Agency said: “In cases such as this, where an individual seeks leave to enter the United Kingdom as a visitor, they’re required to show that they will not break the conditions of their visa during their stay.

“If an individual is found to be entering the UK for a purpose in breach of the conditions of their visa, the immigration officer will refuse entry, in line with the rules.”

She said immigration officers could temporarily admit someone to the UK while evidence was gathered, prior to a decision being made.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk